Thursday, 15 December 2016

Christmas makes

I attended an enamelling course recently and made some pendants. I really enjoyed playing for 4 Monday evenings. I love the way crafts cross over and I was intrigued to find out that rubber stamps could even be used for creating enamel pieces! I took a couple of photos which I thought you would find interesting. First I sieved a white layer of powdered enamel over the copper circular pendant. This was then put into a kiln to fire.

Once it had cooled I used the smallest snowflake from the Snowman Jack Visible Image set and stamped with archival ink. I then added some blue enamel powder which sticks to the ink. The pendant was then fired a second time

and below is my pendant after firing.

I also made some other pendants which I will make into jewellery at some point. They are sooo hard to photograph!

The one below has lots of layers and was fired in several stages. I added a glass bead layer and gold micra powder. I can just about give you an idea of the depth with this photo but IRL it is magical. It is like looking into a pool.

I have also made some Christmas decorations for my children's homes. I decorated a 2nd VI Monolith which I gave to my son and his girlfriend. The first one I shared here last month and is with my daughter and family.
I started with some gesso and Joanna Sheen ivy die cuts on the front

and on the back a lamp post and Cheery Lynn icicle die cut

I added lots of washes of Decoart media paints.

Then I stamped, embossed, paper pieced and cut out Snowman Jack. I added gems for eyes and buttons and coloured his nose and arms.

This is the front.

I added lots of Decoart snow and glamour dust to the base for lots of sparkle just as I did for my snowflake monolith which you can see here in detail.
Below is the back, complete with glittered mittens and the fun sentiment.
These are my last guest design pieces for Visible Image. They have just made some new business decisions for 2017 which means they no longer need the extra 3 new design team and 2 guest designers they took on in September. It's been short but very sweet to guest design for them and I have lots of lovely new VI stamps still to play with. I wish them every success with their new crafty adventures ahead. I will of course still love creating with their gorgeous stamps.

I would like to enter my Christmas Monolith into the following challenges.

Christmas at sweet stampin inspired by a song mine is pretty obviously as the words are on the back! ....Baby it's cold outside by Tom Jones and Cerys Matthews. The funny thing is that it has turned ridiculously mild here again..it was 16c in garden yesterday!

We had a mammoth wrapping session yesterday and the presents are mostly done. I also managed to make my crackers and will share them with you very soon. Today I am taking a day off to have lunch with my best friend Karen and share some festive chat, our last for 2016!

I hope you are getting your lists ticked now?

Thanks so much for visiting and for all your kind comments. I appreciate just how busy everyone is at the moment. I would also like to extend a very warm welcome to my newest follower. Thanks for joining me on my creative journey here at Jane's Journal.

23 comments:

Love your enamel pendants, Jane - I remember doing a bit of enamelling in high school and was so pleased with the result (though my keyring went missing before I could take it home!) I am looking forward to the holidays and spending a bit of time with hubby, though he's only off for a week with Christmas and New Year being on a Sunday and we have so much that we want to fit in, plus family coming down from Scotland for the New Year, so no doubt it will go in a flash!The little man has been off school this week with a dreadful cough and cold and has kindly shared his germs with me and my eldest, so just want to curl up in a ball and sleep until it's gone! I don't do 'ill'!Might do some wrapping tomorrow and then see where I'm at with the present situation - it's very low key this year as none of us NEED anything, really! On the bright side, it's only a week until we're on the downhill towards Summer...roll on Dec 21st! Hope you have a lovely lunch out with your best friend, though I'm sure you will! Hugs, Lisa x

Beautiful creations once again, love your enamel pieces, those will make adorable jewelry BUT my favorite is that snowman monolith! Wow, gorgeous! Things are ticking off quite nicely here, cards done&sent, last gifts will be (hopefully) purchased this evening... All going great, bring it on, holidays!

WOW! What an awesome class, I will have to look for this at our local Crafting Museum (in the past I have taken a stained glass class and a silversmithing class, both fantastic!) Your ART is gorgeous! Love how you carried over your art too! The snowman project is festively fantastic! Love him! Thanks so much for playing along with us at href="http://modsquadchallenge.blogspot.com/">The Mod SquadChallenge Donna, Challenge Host.

Oh my your enamel pieces are beautiful Jane, I especially love the first one, the colours are so pretty!And how amazing is your snowman, I'm sure it was gratefully received.Have a great weekend ahead my friend.V x

Oh Jane you took me right back to my early teaching days when I did an enamelling course which I'd love to do again, your pendants are amazing. Love your monolith too, beautifully mixed media in style xxx

What a beautiful decor piece! I just love that snowman, how wonderful is he!! The blue tones combined with the frosty ice and shimmery accents really create a wonderful wintery feel!! Your kids must love them! Wonderful fun with the pendants, beautiful end results! The gold glittery one is fantastic! hugs and happy weekend!

WOW! I am totally impressed Jane!! Your enamel pendants are gorgeous - looks like you have captured the snow in them. And then...your snowman is a delight!!! It's gorgeous on both sides with all of that beautiful snow. Love the snowman! Thanks so much for joining us this week in our challenge at Simon Says Stamp Monday challenge! hugs, Maura

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About Me

Welcome to Jane's Journal. Having worked for the NHS as a physiotherapist for 34 years I now follow a crafting life selling my handmade cards in Dotty's, a local vintage tea room. My passions are as a papercrafter, silversmith, jewellery maker, and occasional cake decorator. I am a Design Team Member for Country View Crafts, Visible Image and STAMPlorations. I enjoy occasional Guest Designing for other stamp companies/card challenges. My work has been published and appeared on TV. I am also a keen photographer and gardener.
I am the wife of a very dear husband and have 2 wonderful grown up children (but always my babies to me). Our lives have been blessed by the arrival of our 2 darling grandchildren; Daisy Jane, in 2013 and Jack in 2017. We also have a very special cat called Billy who shares our home.
My blog is written to share my hobbies, crafts and gardening and to create a journal I can look back on. Thanks for visiting me here and watching my creative journey.
Please don't be shy - do leave a comment and say hello, it's great to realise that I'm not rambling to myself but even if you don't wish to just pull up a chair, make yourself comfy and have a read.
Jane x